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ONGOING: Orna
Jul. 3rd, 2021 11:08 amWe found this one when reinstalling and moving apps over from our old phone to the new one we just got, and we happened to see it in the recommended lists. Now, I'll be the first person to admit that any time you see a featured game on the front page of the Play Store or Samsung games app or whatever that that is usually a warning that you're in for some hot F2P garbage, but... ehh, I was curious. Worse that could happen was it'd take about ten seconds to get that sense of "... oh :(" and uninstall it, right? May as well take a peek, not like we're out anything for trying.
Well, it turns out that this one is pretty cool, actually!
Orna is a GPS "walk around IRL to visit stuff in the game" game, IE that genre that some people know from Ingress and most people know from Pokemon Go. And since Pokemon Go... has some flaws, shall we say, I was open to giving some of the competition a try.
I am aware that quite a few people we know (ourselves included!) are wary of this genre for "you mean I have to go outside? Pass" reasons, and trust me, I know how frustrating it is to be a shut-in NEET who pretty much can't play PoGo because there aren't any Pokestops or Gyms or anything within reach of your own apartment and it's just not worth getting dressed and walking all the way to the grocery store just to catch a goddamn Rattata. We've been there. We're still there, which is why we were looking for alternatives.
The beauty of Orna is that, for a GPS game, it's remarkably pretty much just a pure JRPG, complete with 16-bit sprite visuals, turn-based combat, classes, equipment, spells/skills, items, and some mechanics such as party members/followers and guild-to-guild territory wars that we haven't even progressed far enough to experience yet. While it has real-world exploration elements in the form of having a ton of buildings and structures with essential services (you're really, really going to want easy access to a shop if you want to get anywhere, for example,) it has town-building mechanics (!!!) so that if there's anything missing from within arm's reach of your bedroom, you can make the goddamn store yourself if you save up enough for it. (We only need 20 more wood to have all the materials to plop a blacksmith down on this block, at which point we'll be able to complete the "upgrade your weapons at a blacksmith" quests. *fwee*) I'm told you can also get around this issue by building a teleport gate and using it to visit someone else who has whatever structure you need in their area, but this is another feature we've yet to try for ourselves.
It's not going to out-Depth Dragon Quest XI at its own game or anything; you're still just grinding monsters to get better equipment drops and watch stat bars go up so that you can grind bigger monsters. But for a GPS game? Maybe this is just how much PoGo lowered the bar, but this is outstanding. I keep going back and checking up on things, fighting some monsters and clearing the nearby dungeon and such, and that should tell you that 1) this game has enough to it that I actually want to play it on purpose, even at home when other options are available, as opposed to being the "ehh I'm stuck at the bus stop anyway, may as well make the steps count for something" last resort, and 2) there's enough actual gameplay here that I can log in and poke at this game multiple times a day even without going outside.
If you're in the market for a GPS game, I know we're only speaking from a sample size of two (this and PoGo) but it still feels like this has to be one of the greatest achievements of the entire genre. If you're allergic to GPS games and you just like good old fashioned RPGs, this one is honestly still worth at least a quick peek. It's free, after all, and the F2P monetizations are refreshingly non-predatory (no ads, no artificial cooldown limitations with purchasable energy crystals or any of that bullshit; you can buy things like unique appearance character sprites and an optional class or two if you really want.) Like I said before we got sucked into this: Why not take a quick peek if nothing else, right?
Well, it turns out that this one is pretty cool, actually!
Orna is a GPS "walk around IRL to visit stuff in the game" game, IE that genre that some people know from Ingress and most people know from Pokemon Go. And since Pokemon Go... has some flaws, shall we say, I was open to giving some of the competition a try.
I am aware that quite a few people we know (ourselves included!) are wary of this genre for "you mean I have to go outside? Pass" reasons, and trust me, I know how frustrating it is to be a shut-in NEET who pretty much can't play PoGo because there aren't any Pokestops or Gyms or anything within reach of your own apartment and it's just not worth getting dressed and walking all the way to the grocery store just to catch a goddamn Rattata. We've been there. We're still there, which is why we were looking for alternatives.
The beauty of Orna is that, for a GPS game, it's remarkably pretty much just a pure JRPG, complete with 16-bit sprite visuals, turn-based combat, classes, equipment, spells/skills, items, and some mechanics such as party members/followers and guild-to-guild territory wars that we haven't even progressed far enough to experience yet. While it has real-world exploration elements in the form of having a ton of buildings and structures with essential services (you're really, really going to want easy access to a shop if you want to get anywhere, for example,) it has town-building mechanics (!!!) so that if there's anything missing from within arm's reach of your bedroom, you can make the goddamn store yourself if you save up enough for it. (We only need 20 more wood to have all the materials to plop a blacksmith down on this block, at which point we'll be able to complete the "upgrade your weapons at a blacksmith" quests. *fwee*) I'm told you can also get around this issue by building a teleport gate and using it to visit someone else who has whatever structure you need in their area, but this is another feature we've yet to try for ourselves.
It's not going to out-Depth Dragon Quest XI at its own game or anything; you're still just grinding monsters to get better equipment drops and watch stat bars go up so that you can grind bigger monsters. But for a GPS game? Maybe this is just how much PoGo lowered the bar, but this is outstanding. I keep going back and checking up on things, fighting some monsters and clearing the nearby dungeon and such, and that should tell you that 1) this game has enough to it that I actually want to play it on purpose, even at home when other options are available, as opposed to being the "ehh I'm stuck at the bus stop anyway, may as well make the steps count for something" last resort, and 2) there's enough actual gameplay here that I can log in and poke at this game multiple times a day even without going outside.
If you're in the market for a GPS game, I know we're only speaking from a sample size of two (this and PoGo) but it still feels like this has to be one of the greatest achievements of the entire genre. If you're allergic to GPS games and you just like good old fashioned RPGs, this one is honestly still worth at least a quick peek. It's free, after all, and the F2P monetizations are refreshingly non-predatory (no ads, no artificial cooldown limitations with purchasable energy crystals or any of that bullshit; you can buy things like unique appearance character sprites and an optional class or two if you really want.) Like I said before we got sucked into this: Why not take a quick peek if nothing else, right?
